By the Light of the Moon
by Sole-Reverie
Summary: Itachi and Sasuke struggle living with a physically and emotionally abusive father, while trying to heal from the grief of losing their mom.  ONE SHOT   no yaoi


_"Plip!"_

_"Plip!"_

_"Plip!"_

_"Thwack!"_

Sasuke slammed his history book on the surface of his desk in frusteration.

("Would it NEVER stop raining?")

The repetitive _plinking_ sound of the rain was knawing at his nerves,-  
>along with the continous yelling coming from downstairs.<p>

Fugaku was home.

(He would not think of him as his father. Not the way he treated them.  
>Not after what he did to Itachi last year.)<p>

Sasuke sighed.

The view out his window depressed him.  
>Rain streamed in rivulets.<p>

(In his mind he figured it quite befitted his mood.)

Sasuke jumped at the sound of a loud crash coming from downstairs.

Inching towards the door to his room he leaned against it to hear better but when he discovered he couldn't he opened it and went out into the hall.

The yelling was louder out here..

Sasuke clenched his fists to keep his hands from shaking as he made his way down; heart in his throat.

Fugaku was drunk again.

Sasuke knew it the instant he heard the garbled speech coming from the kitchen.

There was another voice too, strong and deep yet soft-like,- Itachi.

His older brother must be trying to calm their drunken fa- Fugaku down.

"Itachi..?"

(His voice sounded so hallow and..-scared? Why did he sound scared? It was just Fugaku. He had been like this every since Mikoto died.-  
>Sasuke's throat involuntarily cloggs up at the memory of their mother.)<p>

Itachi's dark silken hair whips around as he turns his head sharply towards Sasuke.

"Sasuke,..how are you?" Itachi says pleasantly,- as though he weren't holding back a raging drunk and instead was getting ready to pour coffee.

The sight of Fugaku struggling against his older brother brings back painful memories of the night Fugaku hit their mother.

Itachi had been holding their..(if you would call him that) on that night too. There had been a horrible thundering storm outside, Fugaku had been angry about something Itachi did and was going to hit him but in that moment Mikoto stepped forward and he striked her instead.

Everyone had froze in shock.

Sasuke could remember sobbing, screaming,..-their father had blamed Itachi for it of course, if only he would have listened,.-But Itachi had needed a break, it was just one night out with his friends,..surely that wasn't so bad right?

"Sasuke..?"

Sasuke bolts his eyes upward towards Itachi.  
>Itachi doesn't even have to say it.<p>

Sasuke knew what he was asking in that moment,- his eyes told him.

("Are you alright?" Itachi wanted to know how he was doing? What should he do; lie? I'm okay,..just a little shaken, dazed, and hurt but otherwise JUST fine.)

_"Ba-thump-Ba-thump-Ba-thump!"_

(His heart was going crazy.."Why did Itachi always take all the blame?  
>wasn't it their "father's" fault? Hasn't it always been his fault from the beginning?")<p>

Sasuke could feel his fists trembling as he walked closer to where Itachi and their father were standing.

Itachi remains calm but his eyes widen slightly in question.

(He wasn't sure that he could hold two people back by himself.)

"Why?"

The question comes out hoarse.

(Even Sasuke is suprised by the sound of it.)

Their father finally seems to notice Sasuke.

"Why did you do it?" Sasuke asks again.

(He was accusing their father of Mikoto's death...)

_("Please don't say it Sasuke,..I know but just don't say it.." Itachi begged in his mind.)_

"Why did you kill her?" sasuke spat.

Fugaku freezes for a moment,-like he isn't sure of what he just heard,  
>then the pain of the past floods over his face and Sasuke feels his spine freeze by the intensity of sheer anger and hurt flashing in their father's eyes.<p>

Itachi lunges to grab their father by the arm but not before he takes a swing at Sasuke's eye.

Sasuke is flung back against the wall, he collides with a painful smack.

Pain courses through him as he sits there motionless.

Sasuke hears Itachi's sharp intake of breath,..-the only evidence he is flustered.

_("..Itachi had always been the strong one. Why am I so weak? Why was he always so weak?")_

Sasuke tries to swallow again but it doesn't work this time-the lump in his throat is still there,..as is the darkness. His only means of escape from reality. Sasuke welcomed it.

"Sasuke!"

Sasuke moans slightly and opens his eyes.

"Sasuke can you walk?"

Itachi is sitting,..-actaully sitting on Fugaku's back, holding his arms, while he talks to Sasuke.

Their father had long since passed out on the floor.

Sasuke stands up and shakily starts up the stairs,- chest heaving with anger and hurt, but he refused to let the tears fall.

He is trembling so much he barely makes it up the stairs, as he enters his room he is overtaken with overwelming anger that shakes his entire frame.

He is filled with a scorching fury and desire to break something,-  
>anything! To release him of the pain.<p>

Sasuke hurls the stack of books off of his desk onto the floor-  
>they land with a definitive<em>smack<em>!

He moves next to the book self and grabs whatever he can get his hands onto, pens, more books, binders, cds, and sends them flying about the room.

But instead of diminishing the pain, it only made it grow, and with each thrust he felt the anger and hopelessness inside him rise like the tide until it he was a raging stormy sea.

Then Sasuke reaches the mirror.

The sight of himself: ( glazed watery eyes, one bruised,-the other bloodshot, ..) sends his emotions reeling like a tornado and he starts punching the mirror with his bare hands.

Glass jumps in all directions,-it looks almost like ice, and Sasuke can't help but think it almost pretty even as it cuts him cruelly on it's way to the floor.

_"Crash!"_

The door to his room bangs open then,..(or maybe it doesn't,- he isn't sure, perhaps that was his heart. Maybe he finally exploded inside.  
>Maybe he FINALLY had taken more then he can handle.)<p>

"Sasuke!"

Itachi rushes over to Sasuke,..(who is still fervently punching the mirror, he grabs the boy's hands then stops abruptly.

His heart aches painfully at the sight of Sasuke's bloodied hands,- and then again at the boy's bruised eye (that had started to swell nicely)

Itachi stays like that for a few moments until he hears a choked voice ask:

"Why?"

And his heart breaks...  
>Sasuke just stands there, waiting desperately for instruction. <em>(he needs someone to tell him what to do, what does he do now?)<em>

"Why..?" He asks again and his voice cracks.

His breathing is coming in and out in pants, eyes wide in confusion and hurt.

And Itachi for the first time in his life doesn't know what to say.

But he knows what to do; he puts his hands under Sasuke's arms and pulls him close.

Sasuke doesn't fight. (which further proves Itachi's theory that Sasuke really WASN'T alright this time..)

Sasuke's chest heaves and a pitiful sound escapes his lips and throat.

Itachi just stands there holding Sasuke,- until the boy starts to tremble terribly,-shaking spazzingly in Itachi's arms.

Itachi draws his brother closer as he feels the tears soaking into his shirt.

Sasuke disregards the embarrassment of the whole situation,- he is in so much pain right now he forgot to be embarrassed.

The tears are silent at first,-so silent it is almost haunting.

Until the screaming starts,..

Itachi struggles to hold on to Sasuke as he falls to his knees.

"I-it j-just hurts too much.."

Itachi feels his own throat start to clog as Sasuke grasps desperately for his shirt.

_(He was falling,..and he needed something to hold onto or he feared that he would never get back up again.)_

Sasuke leans into Itachi (trying to soak up as much warmth as he could,..lest it be taken from him like everything else had.)

"S-sasuke.." Itachi says hesitatingly.

(Not trusting his voice,..he had to be strong for Sasuke right now. He needs him..)

Sasuke tucks his head near the nape of Itachi's neck as the tears start falling faster.

"Sasuke,..I'm,..I'm not going anywhere." Itachi finally manages to say.

Sasuke's breath comes out shakily and he clutches on tighter.

Itachi rubs his hand up and down his little brother's back as gently as he can.

"P-promise?"

A weak wavering voice asks.

The question takes Itachi off guard for a moment, and he looks down,-  
>to make sure it was indeed Sasuke who asked and he wasn't just imagining things.<p>

Sasuke is looking up at him with red rimmed eyes,- one purple, a runny nose, and quivering lips.

Itachi feels his eyes water and he blinks rapidly to clear them.

"I promise." he says.

As soon as he answers Sasuke leans his head back onto Itachi's shoulder,  
>tuckks his arms under Itachi's and grips the back of Itachi's shirt.<p>

Itachi can feel and,- hear his brother's shuddering sigh as he settles down.

And as the young boy falls asleep in his older brother's arms a whisper floats in the room alight by the moon:

"I promise,..Sasuke."


End file.
